Help with Mac OSX on a "G4 FW 800"

[motoxracer]

Hello,

A friend of mine just purchased a PowerMac G4 (FW 800) code named, "P58" according to Mactracker, and it shipped with Mac OSX 10.2.3 only. When he goes to Sytem Prefs—Start-Up Disc, there are only two choices, a 10.2.3 folder and a Network Start-Up disc. I tried starting his machine up on an original installer Mac OS 9.2.1 CD from Apple by holding down the "C" key to install from but it still booted in X and then mounted the 9.2.1 CD on the desktop like any other CD. He really needs to be able to boot up on 9, Classic won't do what he needs to do. He would really like to have the option of booting in either 9 or X. How can he do this?

Thank You,
Kevin S. (motoxracer)

 

[szark]

Any PowerMacs with FW 800 will not boot into Mac OS 9.

If he really needs to boot into 9, he needs a PowerMac that doesn't have FW 800. (sad, but true)

 

[Sun Baked]

This is a non-bootable machine with regards to OS 9.

For PowerMacs, any machine with FW800 will not boot into OS 9.

For the rest of the machines, DDR memory spells the death of OS 9 bootability.

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Now what does he need working under OS X & Classic?

aka the "critical" app?

 

[motoxracer]

Thank You

Hello szark,

Thank you for such a quick responce to my question. That's bad news for my friend. Why did Apple do this on the FW800 machines and not any others? Were they somehow able to make the hardware in the machine keep from installing Mac OS9?

Thank you again for your help.

Kevin S. (motoxracer)

 

[motoxracer]

Hello Sun Baked,

Thank you for such a quick responce to my question. That's bad news for my friend. It's sort of a long story but he just can't make the full switch over to Mac OSX yet. He likes using it for playing around and getting familiar with it, cruising the internet etc… but when it comes to working, he really needs Mac OS9. Classic was giving him fits.

Thanks again,
Kevin S. (motoxracer)

 

[szark]

Re: Thank You

Originally posted by motoxracer
Were they somehow able to make the hardware in the machine keep from installing Mac OS9?

Once Apple declared OS 9 "dead," they didn't update it to work with the new hardware designs, and dropped support for it in the boot loading program.

So, the boot loader no longer has the code to recognize and boot from an OS 9 partition, and OS 9 doesn't have the code required to recognize new hardware such as the updated chipset, DDR memory, and FW 800.

 

[motoxracer]

Thanks again!

Hello again szark,

Wow! You really know your stuff. Thank you again for your speedy responce and answering my questions. I guess with newer machines from Apple, it's MacOSX all the way or nothing at all. I guess maybe they should have made Classic work a little better than it does if they are going to force people to make the switch.

motoxracer

 

[Catfish_Man]

Re: Thanks again!

Originally posted by motoxracer
Hello again szark,

Wow! You really know your stuff. Thank you again for your speedy responce and answering my questions. I guess with newer machines from Apple, it's MacOSX all the way or nothing at all. I guess maybe they should have made Classic work a little better than it does if they are going to force people to make the switch.

motoxracer

10.3 enhances classic some, but it normally works just fine. If it's messing up, that's typically not normal.

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: Thanks again!

Originally posted by motoxracer
Hello again szark,

Wow! You really know your stuff. Thank you again for your speedy responce and answering my questions. I guess with newer machines from Apple, it's MacOSX all the way or nothing at all. I guess maybe they should have made Classic work a little better than it does if they are going to force people to make the switch.

motoxracer

Printing and scanning, two big OS X transition problems, have workarounds in OS X.

If it's a problem with not being used to OS X for normal work, it'll take about a month to really get used to.

Quite a few OS 9 users seem to have problems getting used to OS X at first.

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So what is the APPLICATIONs or hardware that's causing problems?

Remember that Classic kills direct hardware access so programs like scanners, and audio hardware stop working, along with the OS 9 drivers that may call hardware directly.